


Valentine

by marvinwhizzer



Series: Cecilos Prompts [3]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Because it's Night Vale, But weird, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Fluff, Horror, M/M, Typical Night Vale Weirdness, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-11 02:14:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17437976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marvinwhizzer/pseuds/marvinwhizzer
Summary: Carlos was a little apprehensive, having learned by now that some holidays in Night Vale weren’t the same as in the rest of the world, but when he saw normal-looking Valentine’s Day stuff at the store in early February, he decided to give it a try...





	Valentine

**Author's Note:**

> the prompt here was for "weird Night Vale romance traditions that freak Carlos out"  
> i thought of what Cecil and Carlos' first valentines day as a couple might have been like  
>  
> 
> [original tumblr post](http://dianecrayton.tumblr.com/post/181857101255/alright-the-only-thing-i-could-think-of-when-i)

Carlos was a little apprehensive, having learned that some holidays in Night Vale weren’t the same as in the rest of the world, but when he saw normal-looking Valentine’s Day stuff at the store in early February, he decided to give it a try. He even found a card with an anatomically correct heart on it, much to his scientific delight. On top of the bleeding, realistic image of the heart were the words _: Be my Valentine?_  in an attractive gold lustre.

The cashier grimaced and eyed him up with apparent disgust as she rang him through, but did not comment. Carlos thought she may have just thought that romance was lame, or possibly she was grossed out by depictions of bleeding human organs. He should have known this was not a proper assumption to make in Night Vale.

The look of shock and horror on Cecil’s face when his new boyfriend turned up on his doorstep with flowers was not  _exactly_  what he was expecting.

The scream, too. There was a scream. A panicked, terrified scream. Cecil’s face then drained of all and any colour, and he put a hand over his mouth to silence himself. In two or three seconds of sheer panic, Cecil breathed heavily into his hand. He clenched a fist at his side. Then he unclenched it. Then, he reached forward and slapped the flowers and the chocolates right out of Carlos’ hands.

Carlos looked down at the expensive chocolates that had spilled out on the sidewalk, deeply troubled and at a total loss for words.

He heard a gasp and he looked back up to see Cecil tearing up his card, the many tiny pieces fluttering down to his feet. The world around him had stopped feeling very real.

“What are you  _doing_?” came Cecil’s voice, now very near his face, tone hushed and frantic.

“What am I doing? What are  _you_  doing?” Carlos gestured to the upsetting sight below their feet.

“Carlos, you can’t–” Cecil cut himself off, grumbling with apparent frustration. He glanced around nervously, before grabbing Carlos quite un-gently by the collar.

“Cecil, wh–”

Cecil pulled him inside and locked the door immediately behind him. “It’s not safe out there,“ he whispered. "I think you should stay here with me.”

Carlos chuckled breathily. “Oh, Cecil.”

But Cecil scowled, looking about ready to slap him as he let go of his shirt. “Not now, Carlos! It is  _Valentine’s Day_ , this is not the time to be getting romantic!”

Carlos blinked.

“What were you even thinking? Do you know what would happen if I was designated to be someone’s Valentine?”

“Someone's… Cecil, you silly thing, you’d only be  _my_  Valenti–”

“Carlos!”

“What?”

“You can’t  _say_  those words! Don’t– don’t you  _care_ about me? How could you wish me to be…”

“Cecil, I-I have no idea what you’re talking about. I just wanted t-to give you–”

“Heart-shaped chocolates? On–” Cecil’s voice dropped to a hushed whisper “– _Valentine’s Day?_ ”

“Yes..? Cecil, I don’t–”

“Do you have any idea what happens to someone who is designated to be someone else’s Valentine?”

“No? I have… absolutely no idea.”

“Do you  _know_?”

“No! I seriously don’t know! Are you going to tell me?”

Cecil said nothing. He was pacing back and forth now. He peered through the peephole in the door, a look of crushing fear and panic set on his features.

“I’m sorry…?” Carlos tried.

Cecil turned to face him, sighing. He allowed himself to calm finally. He breathed deeply for a moment, and when he opened his eyes, he was frowning. Carlos was frowning too.

“Where I’m from,” Carlos explained, “Valentine’s Day is a day dedicated to love. You go out and buy gifts for the people that you love – like chocolates, and their favorite flowers… And then you maybe go for a nice dinner or something. I only wanted to do a nice thing and–and take you out on a date. I can only imagine that it is  _not_  like that here. Like,  _at_   _all_. I maybe should have looked into it a little bit more before showing up here and freaking you out. I’m sorry.”

Cecil didn’t seem to know where to put his hands suddenly as Carlos’ words finally reached him. The colour was returning to his cheeks now, generously donating a little bit of extra red.

“I…I’m sorry for freaking you out, too, I guess,” said Cecil. “I-I had no idea.”

“Being someone’s Valentine…”

Cecil winced.

“…isn’t a real thing! It’s just like, something that people say. I don’t really know what the heck it even means. I’m sorry that I… put you through that. I don’t know what Night Vale’s Valentine’s Day is and honestly, after your reaction, I’m not sure that I want to know? I just am going to say that I am so,  _so_  sorry. Valentine’s Day, to me, is about … appreciating the people you love. I’m sorry if it didn’t exactly come across that way.”

“No, Carlos, I… I appreciate that – I appreciate you – so much,” Cecil said, taking Carlos’s hand. “I didn’t know there was such thing as a pleasant, date-night Valentine’s Day. Like, that’s crazy! And amazing! That sounds so much nicer than this, what with all of the bodies in the street right now.” Cecil laughed.

“All of the  _what_?”

Cecil put both of his hands in Carlos’s, looking him in the eyes. “We can still have a date. Kind of. Maybe not out there.” Cecil peeked outside the door again. “Yeah, let’s  _definitely_  not go out there.”

Carlos wanted to look, but Cecil stood in front of the door, pushing him away. “Ugh. Don’t. Valentine’s Day corpses are a total mood-killer.” He rolled his eyes.

Carlos opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. He blinked a few times. “Right…” He peeled Cecil’s hand off of his shoulder.

“Now, tell me more about your  _romantic_ Valentine’s Day, Carlos,” Cecil purred, replacing the hand and guiding Carlos into his house.

Carlos felt himself beginning to sweat. “Are you sure there isn't… something else we should be doing? You mentioned… corpses? People are  _dying_? Shouldn’t we… help?”

Cecil shook his head solemnly. “There’s nothing we can do. Once a Valentine has been decided… There’s nothing anyone can do.”

“Cecil, I seriously don’t know what being a Valentine means here but I am very,  _very c_ oncerned.”

Cecil started to rub Carlos’ shoulders. “It’ll be okay. We’re safe here.”

It was hard for Carlos to tell which one of them he was trying to convince.

Carlos eventually allowed himself to relax into Cecil’s touch. This was fucked up, definitely, but for Night Vale, it was pretty much just another Wednesday. He was having trouble deciding which things to be concerned about these days, because if he let himself be concerned about every little concerning thing that happened around here, his mind would explode.

“Okay,” Carlos said, breathing a sigh. Cecil rubbed the tension slowly out of his shoulders, and he started to feel more relaxed. He also started to feel guilty about feeling relaxed while people were supposedly dying outside from some unknown cause.

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” Cecil murmured. Carlos could tell the words were foreign and devoid of the same meaning to him.

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” he murmured back, feeling just as confused.

It was actually a nice moment, until Carlos heard faint screaming come from outside, making his skin crawl. “Are you sure we shouldn’t–”

“I’m sure.”

Carlos leaned uneasily into Cecil’s chest. He had a feeling it was going to be a long Wednesday.

**Author's Note:**

> [send me prompts](dianecrayton.tumblr.com/ask) if you'd like! they're a lot of fun!!


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